Xseed Confirms The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road

Xseed had two post E3 reveals: one for Wii and one for DS. The Wii announcement turned out to be Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces. The DS one is RIZ-ZOAWD, originally handled in Japan by D3 Publisher. Xseed officially announced they partnered with D3 Publisher to acquire the North American publishing rights.

Since the game is based on the Wizard of Oz story, it isn’t surprising that Xseed have chosen the title “The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road” for the localized release. Dorothy’s movement in The Wizard of Oz is controlled with a virtual trackball and the turn-based battles take place from a first-person perspective. Read our impressions of the Japanese release to hear more about how this works.

Warner Brothers is involved in the North American release, but it’s unclear what impact they will have on the game. They might just be licensing out The Wizard of Oz name.

The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is scheduled for a fall release. Amazon and Gamefly list get more specific with September 29 and 30 dates, respectively.

Oh no, we got your tip! Thanks for sending it :) I think out of all the sites that posted the rumor we were one of the few, perhaps only site that played the game.

We had an official confirmation then too, but at that time we couldn’t post it…

maxchain

Thank goodness–y’know, I still can’t make heads or tails of Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’s original Japanese name.

Gestahl

Day 1.

Ereek

I’m so conflicted about this. I love the Oz books and the art style in this, especially the Tinman and Scarecrow, is appealing, but that control scheme. Ugh. I think this looks like one of those games that I will really want to love, yet can’t quite reach “love” status, it can reach “like,” due to some flaws in design choice.

The trackball actually isn’t that bad. It works best if you put your DS on a table instead of holding it. I hope that Xseed asked Media.Vision to make standard controls, but the descriptions don’t sound like they did.

jarrodand

XSEED should just take over for Bandai Namco/D3 USA. They’re bringing all their more interesting games anyway.

Gestahl

You speak wisely, kind sir. And while they’re at it, they should pick up Retro Game Challenge 2. Not gonna happen, I know…

Zefiro Torna

XSEED Hometek Publisher of America. That’s already making for a ridiculously wonderful name…